{"id":226174,"date":"2020-07-03T14:40:09","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T19:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=226174"},"modified":"2021-07-14T22:05:07","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T03:05:07","slug":"planned-parenthood-systemic-racism-white-supremacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/planned-parenthood-systemic-racism-white-supremacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Planned Parenthood employees describe corporation’s ‘systemic racism’ and ‘white supremacy’ problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Planned Parenthood’s century of racist, eugenicist history<\/a> has been relatively ignored by members of the media, Hollywood, and political allies.\u00a0These elites have, at times, lectured the public that Planned Parenthood founder<\/a> Margaret Sanger and her board members (including a Ku Klux Klan leader<\/a>), who started the infamous “Negro Project<\/a>” and recommended that parents obtain<\/span>\u00a0licenses<\/a>\u00a0to bear children,\u00a0<\/span>were simply products of their time. Yet, reports indicate that the corporation is still steeped in racist philosophies and practices.<\/p>\n

“White supremacy” problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

A recent open\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0signed<\/a> by hundreds of past and current Planned Parenthood of Greater New York employees\u00a0alleges<\/a>\u00a0that the organization has current issues with “white supremacy.” The letter noted:<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood was founded by a racist, white woman. That is a part of history that cannot be changed…We know that Planned Parenthood has a history and a present steeped in white supremacy and we, the staff, are motivated to do the difficult work needed to improve.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Planned Parenthood staffers admit PP founded in racism and steeped in white supremacy (Screenshot: SavePPGNY)<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n

Planned Parenthood staffers also\u00a0<\/span>allege<\/a>\u00a0that Planned Parenthood’s minority employees “have worked tirelessly under the thumb of White Supremacist Agenda.”<\/p>\n

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Save Planned Parenthood Greater New York PPGNY tweet claims they work under White Supremacist agenda (Image: Twitter)<\/p><\/div>\n

PPGNY’s employees\u00a0claimed<\/a>\u00a0their CEO eliminated “an entire department of primarily Black and Latina women,” and a May 2019\u00a0letter<\/a> sent to Planned Parenthood Federation of America claimed the CEO “likes to tokenize black people.” A separate staffer wrote, “A privileged white woman who has zero empathy is leading PPNYC, an organization that serves minority, underserved individuals who desperately need this care….” This employee also\u00a0claimed<\/a> a deliberate pay inequity existed between white and non-Black employees.<\/p>\n

“Systemic racism” problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood’s “systemic racism” was<\/a> recently acknowledged<\/a> by Planned Parenthood Greater Washington and North Idaho\u00a0on Twitter: “White supremacy and systemic racism permeate every American institution \u2013 including Planned Parenthood. We must reckon with the history of Planned Parenthood and that of the larger reproductive rights movement….”<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood Action New Hampshire published<\/a> a similar admission, writing in part:<\/p>\n

We know that systemic racism isn\u2019t limited to police departments… It\u2019s in our institutions, including Planned Parenthood… We need to examine how white supremacy of the past and present continues to reverberate in the institutions we are a part of today \u2014 including Planned Parenthood.<\/em><\/p>\n

Employee complaints<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to their letter,\u00a0PPGNY staffers also unleashed a litany of accusations<\/a>\u00a0accusing their CEO of instituting “a revenue-driven, assembly-line approach to PPGNY clinics – one that put patients, and in particular Black and other patients of color, at potential risk.”<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople of color are at the frontlines, but as you go through the ranks, it becomes whitewashed,\u201d employee Michelle Adams told<\/a> Jezebel. She described one of the corporation’s contraceptive initiatives as \u201cwhite saviorism\u201d and claimed PPGNY’s CEO encouraged the promotion of “long-term contraceptives, like IUDs,” in primarily Black and Latinx schools.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re talking about public schools where black and brown children are because they\u2019re so hypersexual and need to be controlled? It\u2019s a direct link to the history of forced sterilization,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

In\u00a01992<\/a>, a similar program resulted in accusations<\/a> of racism after girls attending predominately Black schools in Baltimore<\/a> were targeted with the Norplant contraceptive, then in its experimental phase. It was developed by the Population Council<\/a>, a eugenics organization which later brought the abortion pill to the U.S.<\/p>\n

In 2015<\/a>, similar programs were led by Dr. Leana Wen, the Baltimore City Health Commissioner\u00a0who later became Planned Parenthood’s national president.<\/p>\n

Employees also accused PPGNY’s CEO of pushing a \u201cfor-profit\u201d model and “[work] shifts that disproportionately burdened people of color, both staff and patients.” They claimed people of color were given long work hours and insufficient wages.<\/p>\n